Milton superintendent field reduced to three

MILTON  The Milton School District appears on track to reach its goal of announcing a new superintendent in the beginning of March.

“Assuming we can get all the background checks, reference checks done … we’re still shooting for trying to wrap it up for the beginning part of March, but I’m not going to set anything in stone,” said Sue Johnson, school board president.

The candidate pool is down to three, according to a news release issued by the district Wednesday. They are:

-- Dr. Heidi Schmidt, a seven-year district administrator of the Fall River School District. She previously was a middle school principal in Brodhead and an assistant middle school principal in the Hamilton School District in Sussex.

-- David Bradley, district administrator for the Charles City School District in Iowa. He previously was assistant superintendent and business manager of the Marion School District, Iowa, and a vocal music teacher.

-- Bernard Nikolay, elementary school principal in the Oak Creek-Franklin School District. He previously was a teacher and principal in the Marshall School District and a police officer in Lake Mills.

Current Milton Superintendent Peg Ekedahl announced in October her intention to retire in June after 26 years with the district.

The district hired Fox River Consultants to aid in the superintendent search. The district formed three interview teams—focusing on community and public relations, instruction and curriculum, and finance and personnel—to interview six candidates over the last two weeks. The school board reviewed the teams’ feedback and chose the finalists Monday, the news release said.

The school board plans to conduct second interviews with the three finalists between now and Monday, Feb. 25, and might do site visits to the candidates’ districts, Johnson said.